A 49-year-old Silverton man was found guilty Friday of producing child pornography and five other counts stemming from graphic online chats he had with a 13-year-old girl, whom he also tried to meet for sex.

Edward Allen McElroy could face life in prison, due to his previous state convictions of sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl in Marion County in 2000.

Federal prosecutors contend McElroy met the Sherwood girl online on Sept. 5, 2011. He induced her into posing in sexually explicit positions in front of a webcam that night while he watched, they said.

"To a 13-year-old's mind, this has got to seem somewhat safe," said Paul Maloney, a Washington County deputy district attorney who is helping prosecute the case as a special assistant U.S. Attorney. The girl was in her own bedroom, he noted, and believed she could "turn the computer off at anytime."

But McElroy was also secretly taking screen shots of the webcam images, prosecutors said. The two made plans to meet for sex, but the girl grew afraid and backed out, according to testimony.

McElroy then increased pressure on the girl in September and October, Maloney said, referring to emails and messages recovered from his and the girl's computers. He threatened to post his pornographic photos of her at her school and elsewhere after she told him to leave her alone, he said. In another, Maloney said, he sent her a video of a young girl engaging in oral sex, with the subject line “should be you” and other graphic photos to the girl.

The girl’s mother discovered some of the photos on the computer, and in November 2011, investigators assumed the girl’s online identity. After a few message exchanges, McElroy went to a Sherwood park for what he believed would be a tryst. Instead, he was arrested. He had brought a prepaid cell phone for the girl, condoms and a six-pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, investigators said.

McElroy’s defense focused in part on whether he knew that the girl was younger than 18 and on her willingness to pose and chat with him. The two met on a website called ihookup.com for users 18 and older. Despite the girl telling him in her second email that she was 13, McElroy told police that he thought she was “playing around” at the time.

But prosecutors introduced as evidence other emails and instant messages taken from his computer and the girl’s computer that, they contend, show he was well aware of her age. In one message, he told her “your age is fine.” Investigators also found another email McElroy sent to a female friend in which he talks about the girl, acknowledging she is “like 14” and stated “I know, she is young … Probably too young for me anymore.”

Although McElroy did not testify, he opted to represent himself in the final portion of the three-day trial after a disagreement about strategy with his court-appointed attorney. U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez warned McElroy that representing himself was not “wise,” but allowed the change.

The switch resulted in McElroy’s potentially revealing his sex-offender status to jurors, who have not been told of his past convictions. McElroy's sex offender registration -- although not the details of his convictions -- are included in a probable cause affidavit that he entered as an exhibit as he questioned a Sherwood Police detective on the stand about the girl's age.

McElroy tried to retract the exhibit after prosecutors noted – outside the jury’s presence -- that the affidavit includes his status as a registered sex offender. Jurors now can view the exhibit during deliberations.

“There was wrongdoing by all parties in this case,” McElroy said in his closing argument Thursday. But he said the government was the biggest culprit and had violated his due process rights in the investigation, in part by representing in the probable cause affidavit that he knew the girl was 13. He asked the jury to “uphold the Constitution of the United States and render a verdict of not guilty on all counts.”

But Gary Sussman, an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, countered that McElroy is looking to place blame on everyone but himself.

“Thirteen-year-olds have lapses in judgment,” he said. “What we don’t expect is for a 47-year-old (in 2011) man to exploit those lapses in judgment… We expect our adults to keep their hands off children.”

The charges against McElroy are: one count of production of child pornography, one count of online enticement of a minor; one count of attempted transportation of child pornography; two counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.